I visited Masafu Hospital in eastern Uganda on a busy Tuesday morning. Tuesdays are antiretroviral therapy (ART) clinic days at this Ugandan facility. Patients come on their designated date for a checkup and to pick up their prescription refill. (Clients get a one month supply of medicines; ideally health workers see the HIV-positive clients once a month to check their health status.)

On ART-clinic days, Jessica, David and Matuet organize files, greet patients, inform patients about side effects, educate on prevention methods, support CD4 collection, and communicate with relatives. On non-clinic days, the expert clients reach out to the communities to reduce stigma, inform people about the services available at health centers, and encourage others to know their status.

David explains that he chose to become an expert client because, “I have the challenge too; I want to help others understand HIV better.”

Matuet said, “Other community members don’t want to know their status. I had to stand up.”

Mildred Akinyi had abdominal pain for some time before she attended a reproductive health workshop for HIV positive couples at Masafu Hospital in Uganda in July 2011.

“I always felt pain in my abdomen, and would take a lot of panadols to ease the pain. I did not know what was wrong with me," Akinyi said. "When I heard from the case manager at Masafu hospital that STAR-E had organized for women living with HIV and their partners to be screened for cervical cancer and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), I could not wait to use that chance to get checked.”